When Henry Flagler's Florida East Coast Railway extended its tracks from West Palm Beach to Miami in 1895-96, the company was awarded 3,000 acres for every mile of track constructed, for a total of nearly 210,000 acres, or about 325 square miles (by contrast, the present-day municipality of Pompano Beach covers approximately 25 square miles). These lands were not necessarily contiguous to the right-of-way.

Additional land was given the FEC for laying out towns along the new tracks, such as Fort Lauderdale. Typically, the railway would receive alternating sections of the new towns (which would often be swapped to consolidate holdings).

Pompano, however, was not platted by the FEC. Although the railroad was critical to the town's development, Pompano was not born as a "company" town.